Comforting a virtual 'child' can help people with depression

Virtual reality isn't just fun -- it could also have more practical uses. From the diagnosis of Alzheimer's to interacting withmedical data, VR is being used in increasingly innovative ways.

Now, a study from UCL and the University of Barcelona have found that an immersive virtual reality therapy could help people with depression be less critical about themselves -- reducing depressive symptoms. 

The therapy had previously been trialled by healthy volunteers and was subsequently given to 15 patients aged 23 to 61 in order to test its efficacy on depression. Patients were given a virtual reality headset, in which they had the perspective of a virtual body. They were then trained to express compassion towards a virtual child, which responded positively and stopped crying. After a few minutes, the patients' perspective changed to that of the child, and received the comforting and compassionate words they had delivered a few minutes earlier. 

This scenario, which lasted around ten minutes, was repeated three times at weekly intervals. 

Nine of the patients reported reduced depressive symptoms, with four of this group experiencing a "clinically significant" drop in depression severity. 
"People who struggle with anxiety and depression can be excessively self-critical when things go wrong in their lives," said lead author Chris Brewin. "In this study, by comforting the child and then hearing their own words back, patients are indirectly giving themselves compassion."

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"The aim was to teach patients to be more compassionate towards themselves and less self-critical, and we saw promising results. A month after the study, several patients described how their experience had changed their response to real-life situations in which they would previously have been self-critical". 

Researchers stress that their work is in its early stages -- the sample size was small, and they hope to do further research to deepen their understanding of how VR can he used therapeutically.

"We hope to develop the technique further to conduct a larger controlled trial, so that we can confidently determine the clinical benefit," said co-author Mel Slater. "If a substantial benefit is seen, this therapy could have huge potential. The recent marketing of low-cost home virtual reality systems means that methods like this could be part of every home, and be used on a widespread basis."

IMMERSION THERAPY

The latest study is not the only virtual reality experience to be used to treat mental illness and neurological damage. 

• Psychologist Albert Rizzo uses virtual reality to treat PTSD in Iraq War veterans. Using a programme called 'Virtual Iraq', the treatment is a form of exposure therapy that involves "exposing the patient to a virtual environment containing the feared situation", rather than exposing them to the real environment. 
  
• In 1995, psychologist Ralph Lamson became one of the first to use VR as therapy, using it to help patients with severe phobias of heights. 
• NICE have also highlighted the benefits of computerised cognitive behavioural therapy for treating mild conditions such as depression and anxiety
• A team from the University of Ulsan found that VR training helped neurological problems in stroke patients.